Five children, one adult die in US hotel fire: sheriff

WASHINGTON: Five children, all from the same family, died on Saturday when fire broke out at a hotel in the US state of Michigan, the local sheriff’s office said.

A sixth victim, a 26-year-old woman related to the youngsters, also lost her life in the blaze at the Cosmo Extended Living Hotel in Sodus Township, the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

“The victims were from one family,” it said, adding that four other people and four first responders were released from a medical center after treatment for smoke inhalation.

The dead children ranged in age from two to 10.

Emergency personnel arrived to find the hotel “filled with flames and smoke,” the sheriff’s office said.

It added that 27 rooms in the “extended living facility” were occupied at the time.

Smoke damage could be seen on some outside walls of the two-story motel-style building, images on local television showed.

The sheriff and fire marshal’s offices were investigating what caused the tragedy in southwestern Michigan, near Benton Harbor.—AFP